Last fall, state Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes (D-San Fernando) introduced a bill that would have required companies to provide the state with detailed information on where they get their water. It was among the lump of bills vetoed by the Governor in the waning hours of the session.

Florida is taking it a step further, proposing to tax bottled water companies 6 cents a gallon for the water they take—a potential $56-million windfall for the state’s troubled coffers. (Only Michigan and Vermont currently impose similar taxes.)

Nestle is steaming mad, claiming that bottled water is a necessity in a natural disaster (in fact, less than 1 percent of the 102,000 bottles filled every hour at the company’s Florida plant are used for natural disaster relief). The company can’t claim that the tax would put it out of business, because it would barely put a dent in its massive profits.

With California facing dire water problems and a broken state budget, should our state follow suit?

*Apparently, because of the controversy surrounding Nestle’s deal with the town of McCloud, the company hasn’t actually started pumping water there.